The Gettysburg Historical Journal Volume 19 Article 6 September 2020 The Celtic Queen Boudica as a Historiographical Narrative Rachel L. Chenault Hendrix College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ghj Part of the History Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Recommended Citation Chenault, Rachel L. (2020) "The Celtic Queen Boudica as a Historiographical Narrative," The Gettysburg Historical Journal: Vol. 19 , Article 6. Available at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ghj/vol19/iss1/6 This open access article is brought to you by The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The Cupola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Celtic Queen Boudica as a Historiographical Narrative Abstract The story of Boudica, the Iron Age Celtic queen, has been echoed through multitudes of historical narratives, stories, poems, novels and even movies. Boudica led a rebellious charge against Roman colonists in Ancient Britain, and was eventually defeated. Now she stands as a woman who fought back against one of the most powerful empires in the world, during a time in which women had little to no place in history at all. Contemporary Roman historians Tacitus, born approximately around 56 or 57 C.E., and Dio, born around 150 C.E., both recorded the events of Boudica’s rise and fall, in retrospect to her defeat. These two Classical sources laid the foundation for the development of her history from the Renaissance up until the 21st century. Now, archaeological research in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries has shed light on the truth of Boudica, an event which occurred over a thousand years before, in 60 or 61 C.E. Boudica as a historiographical narrative can show trends in historical authorship since the Classical sources were written. Boudica became a model of the ‘useable past,’ and often was a venue for historians to communicate their own political opinions. It is in this way that she serves an important purpose of showing historiographical trends, but using modern schools of thought does not always provide the full truth in what happened during Boudica’s life. This paper will evaluate Boudica as a useable character in the past, and what that means for historiographical study today through the lens of ancient historiography, gender in history and post-colonialism. Keywords Celts, Classics, Tacitus, Dio, women, Boudica, queens, historiography This article is available in The Gettysburg Historical Journal: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ghj/vol19/iss1/6 The Celtic Queen Boudica as a Historiographical Narrative By Rachel Chenault Introduction The story of Boudica,1 the Iron Age Celtic queen, has been echoed through multitudes of historical narratives, stories, poems, novels and even movies. Boudica led a rebellion against Roman colonists in Ancient Britain and was eventually defeated. Now she stands as a woman who fought back against one of the most powerful empires in the world, during a time in which women had little to no place in history at all. Contemporary Roman historians Tacitus, born approximately around 56 or 57 C.E., and Dio, born around 150 C.E., both recorded the events of Boudica’s rise and fall, in retrospect to her defeat.2 These two Classical sources laid the foundation for the development of her history from the Renaissance until the twenty-first century. 1 There are multiple different spellings of her name, the three most common being Boudica, Boudicca, and Boadicea. The versions of her name vary based on language and time, although it is generally accepted that the Celtic version of her name is ‘Boudica.’ For the purpose of clarity, this paper will spell her name as Boudica. Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen (London: Hambledon and London, 2005), xviii. 2 Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 43, 52. 39 Archaeological research in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries shed light on the truth of Boudica, a woman who lived over a thousand years ago in 60 or 61 C.E.3 Boudica’s life as a historiographical narrative revealed trends in historical authorship dating back to Classical sources. Boudica was a model of the ‘useable past’ and often a tool for historians to communicate their own political opinions. Consequently, she served to expose historiographical trends, but using modern schools of thought does not always provide the full truth in what happened during Boudica’s life. This paper will evaluate Boudica as a useable character in the past, and what that means for historiographical study today through the lens of ancient historiography, gender in history and post-colonialism. Background In a book review on Boudica’s past, author C.T. Mallan aptly stated that “[i]t may be reasonably said of Boudica, that never has so much been written by so many about someone whom we know so little.”4 From the past five centuries of research there is a generally accepted account of Boudica’s revolt against the Romans. First, it is important to have a grasp of the initial Roman invasion that prompted the revolt. According to Dio’s account of 3 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 4. 4 C.T. Mallan, “Review: Caitlin C. Gillespie, Boudica: Warrior Woman of Roman Britain. Women in Antiquity” (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2018) Bryn Mawr Classical Review. 40 the invasion and recent archaeological findings, the Romans first landed on the isle in 43 C.E., either in present day Kent or Sussex.5 During the invasion, the native Britons, whom the Romans viewed as barbaric, varied in their willingness to fall under Roman control, with some cooperating easily and some resisting violently.6 The earliest written contact with Boudica’s tribe, the Iceni, was in 54 B.C.E., when Julius Caesar recorded the ‘Cenimagni,’ which can be broken down into ‘Iceni magni,’ possibly suggesting that the Iceni tribe was vast and strong.7 The Iceni tribe of Boudica’s time were later reached by the Romans in 47 or 48 C.E., although there is some debate over whether this is the same tribal group that led the revolt in 60/61 C.E.8 A conflict with the Roman governor of Britain, Ostorius Scapula, forcibly disarmed the Iceni and they lived under the rule of Prasutagus, puppet-king of the Iceni and husband to Boudica.9 This introduced a series of major events that lead to Boudica’s fame as a Celtic woman warrior. The Roman Historiography The accounts of Boudica’s rebellion by Dio and Tacitus must be carefully analyzed and critiqued. Given the fact that the 5 E. W. Black, "Sentius Saturninus and the Roman Invasion of Britain” (Britannia 31, 2000), 1. 6 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 19. 7 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 26. 8 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 26. 9 D. F. Allen, "The Coins of the Iceni" (Britannia 1, 1970), 2. 41 two authors chiefly lived in different centuries, the texts should be evaluated independently of one another, and then together in the context of 1st and 2nd century Greco-Roman thought. It is these stories of Boudica that remain the closest to primary sources a historian can find. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus, was one of the most prolific Roman historians from antiquity. Many of his works covertly attacked the Roman Empire and critiqued the early Roman autocracy due to his personal skepticism of the motivations of those in power. Tacitus’s Annals was the fullest account of Boudica and was the primary document for historiographical literature of her life. Tacitus recorded the beginning of the Boudican rebellion by describing the death of King Prasutagus of the Iceni. Following his death, the Roman legate, Suetonius Paulinus, took the land of the Iceni that had been intended for Boudica and her daughters. Tacitus described this event writing: Kingdom and household alike were plundered like prizes of war, the one by Roman officers, the other by Roman slaves. As a beginning, his widow Boudicca was flogged and their daughters raped. The Icenian chiefs were deprived of their hereditary estates as if the Romans had been given the whole country. The king’s own relatives were treated like slaves.10 10 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 43, 46, 47. 42 On the surface, Tacitus represented the Romans as violent and barbaric, an image contrary to popular Roman thought. He communicated a dissatisfaction with the Roman Empire and sympathy for the Britons. Conversely, Tacitus described the rebels’ destruction of to the Roman settlements, Camulodunum and Londinium: “For the British did not take or sell prisoners, or practise other war-time exchanges. They could not wait to cut throats, hang, burn, and crucify.”11 Such violent imagery portrayed Britons with less sympathy. For this reason, Tacitus’s goals in writing this history remain unclear. However, Boudica’s story in the Annals was one of the most detailed and foundational accounts that shaped her legacy.12 The other story of Boudica came from Cassius Dio, a Roman historian who lived later than Tacitus, approximately 150 C.E. to 235 C.E.13 Due to the gap of time between the event and his account, he most likely consulted Tacitus’s writings.14 However, deviations from Tacitus’s version indicate that Dio likely acquired information from other early Roman sources that did not survive.15 The foremost difference in the two texts is Dio’s 11 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 49-50. 12 Hingley and Unwin, Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen, 43, 46, 47.